Y/N groggily opened his eyes and felt his cheek against the cold hard ground. He sat up and felt his back crack. He looked around to gather his senses. He was in a dimly lit bathroom looking place. It didn't look like it had been cleaned in years. In one corner, Mario and Luigi were unconscious in a pile.

Y/N crawled over to them and shook them awake. They woke in a similar fashion that he did. Y/N gasped when he noticed that both their of their left foots were chained to the wall. Y/N turned to check his, realising that he was chained as well. There was enough length to move around the room, but not enough to actually leave the room through the doorway that was on one wall.

"Where are we?" Luigi asked.

"Not sure," Y/N replied, trying to be the calm one of the group. "Wherever we are, we should find a way out. It could be dangerous".

A TV on the wall suddenly crackled to life, showing a masked person on the screen. "I want to play a game," the mystery person said. "In thirty seconds, those bear traps on your heads will close, killing you instantly. Find a way to get them off or its all over". The person on the screen disappeared and a timer replaced him, counting down from thirty.

Instinctively, Y/N's hands flew to his head, his heart dropping when he felt cold, rusted metal sitting on his head and jagged points scratching at his skull. He tried to pull traps off, but they were so tight that if he tugged on them any harder, he would probably draw blood. The timer continued to tick down further as the group began to panic even more.

Luigi collapsed to the floor and started crying while Mario smacked his head against the wall. Y/N spied a tool near him. He picked it up and put it against his head. Carefully, but quickly, he pried the teeth off his head without hurting himself. After it popped off, he dashed over to Mario and Luigi and helped the with theirs. The moment Luigi got his off last was the moment the timer went off. The bear traps snapped shut.

The TV showed the masked man again. "Well done on passing the first challenge, but there are more to come". At that moment, the door swung open. Y/N watched as the chain that tied them were suddenly pulled into the dark doorway. Y/N felt the chain go taught and knew what came next. All three of them were tugged down the hall into a large tunnel. Several spikes, walls and other obstacles stood in their way. "It's the tunnel of doom, baby!" The man's voice echoed out.

Luigi and Y/N managed to get to their feet and run with the chain to avoid tripping again. Luigi dodged around walls while Y/N leaped over spikes with relative ease. Mario however, rolled across the floor like a rag doll, bumping against every obstacle on the way down.

Suddenly, the chains stopped and the sudden stop plus the momentum built up, threw Luigi and Y/N onto their stomachs. They picked themselves up, realising they were in some kind of pretend train station. They climbed onto the platform and dusted themselves off.

Y/N's hard was struck with fear as the masked man appeared out of the darkness on a tricycle. "Haha, are you three having fun? I know I am!" Without replying at all, Mario jumped forward and kicked the man in the face, throwing backwards. "Ow," he cried. Mario proceeded to dance and say some very graphic things. The man got to his feet, his expression hidden behind his mask. "Big mistake!" He growled. The chains went taught again and all three were pulled the rest of the way down the tunnel.

They emerged from the tunnel and into a huge chamber. They were dangling from their feet in the air. It looked like they were in some kind of furnace used to heat metal. Luigi looked down and saw the bright orange liquid. "Lava!? What the heck is happening!?" He screamed.

Like before, the TV on the wall turned on. "Time for the ultimate test of heart," he said. "Each of you has a button on your ankle, pressing it will release you're shackle, dropping you into the lava, but ensures that the others, are free to go". Mario gasped in shock while Y/N looked up and saw the button by his ankle. "Decide now! Oh, and the lava is rising so if you don't act soon, you all die. Goodbye".

Y/N panned his eyes down and saw the lava was in face rising, and fast. "Don't worry guys, we can all get out of this," Y/N said as he reached up and tried to pull himself upwards to the line that was holding all three of them. 

"Mario, try swinging to me," Luigi said. Mario did as he said and began attempting, but the chains were stuck tight, leaving no room to swing. Luigi looked down at the rising lava, if there was nothing they could do, then there really was only one way out of this. He sighed heavily and looked at Mario and Y/N, both were still trying to figure out how to get out of here without pressing the button.

"Mario...Y/N...I'm going to press my button," Luigi said.

"What?" Y/N cried as his strength failed him and he fell limp again. "But if you do that...

"You'll die!" Mario finished.

"I know, but if my brother and my best friend survives, then I'm okay with that," Luigi said with a happy smile.

"Luigi!" Y/N screamed as he reached out his hand for him. "Don't!"

"Make sure SMG4 and the others don't forget about me," Luigi now had a falling from his eye. "I love you guys". Luigi reached up and pressed his button.

There was a loud click and they watched as Luigi fell towards the lava. "Luigi!" Mario closed his eyes before he could watch his brother hit the lava, but it didn't block out the splash that was heard. Y/N refused to look down. "Mario...I am so...".

"Huh?" Luigi said. Both the still dangling friends looked down in shock. Luigi was in the lava, but completely fine. "Wait, this isn't lava. Just really warm kool-aid".

"Hoho, good show," the masked man cried ecstatically as he clapped his gloved hands. "Luigi, for your devotion, love and loyalty to your brother, you are free to go". Luigi began to complain, saying that he wouldn't leave without Y/N and Mario. "Yeah, well, it's not negotiable". A door in the wall opened and the not-lava flowed down, the current carrying Luigi down with it. When he was gone, the man turned to the two remaining people. "As for you, my fine young challengers. We get to go...to the bonus round!" The chain line carried them out of the furnace and into the dark tunnel.

Without warning, their chains unclipped and they plummeted into the darkness. After barely a second, they hit solid ground. Well, Y/N did, Mario landed perfectly in a chair just next to him. Arm and leg clasps suddenly went around his ankles and wrists, keeping him strapped to the chair. "Okay, this is getting weird," Mario exclaimed.

Y/N groaned and got up. He ran for Mario and tried to undo the straps around Mario, but he couldn't figure out how. As expected, another TV just in front of them came to life. "I want to play a game," the man repeated. "To pass this final test, all you need to do is answer one question truthfully".

"That's it?" Y/N said, getting in front of Mario defensively. "Really, no strings, just one simple question?"

"As simple as can be".

Y/N looked back at Mario, asking him to make the call. Mario met his gaze and hesitantly nodded. "Fine, what's the question?"

"Will you be my friend?" The man said innocently.

"What...what kind of question is that?" Mario cried. "Of course not!"

"What if I said please?" the man pressed.

"No, your a psycho. You made me think you killed my brother. I'll never be your friend," Mario yelled at the TV.

The figure turned to Y/N. "What about you, oh so glorious person. What is your answer?"

Y/N crossed his arms and gestured with his head to Mario. "You heard him, my answers the same. With what you're doing now, nobody will ever be your friend!"

For a moment, the man didn't move. Then he started giggling, then his giggling turned to laughter, and then his laughter turned to crazy howling of laughter. Little by little, the man's mask and appearance melted away. An explosion of black smoke covered the screen. The haze cleared, revealing none other than Waluigi. His laughter was still maniacal and he had his sceptre in hands. His eyes were glowing a faint purple. "Thank you, Mario, for rejecting me!"

He reared his head up and roared to the sky. Two beams of purple shout out from his eyes, he exploded into bright light. The light dimmed down, revealing him now with red eyes and shirtless, exposing his clearly defined body and strength, he radiated a purple colour outline on his body. The TV glitched out and turned off.

Waluigi materialised in front of the two friends. Y/N clenched his hands into fists and ran toward him. With a single movement of Waluigi's hand, Y/N was frozen in place. Y/N struggled against it, but it was like gravity all around him wanted to hold him in place. Waluigi walked past Y/N and stood in front of Mario.

"How did you get like this?" Mario cried.

"My power comes from rejection. I sent E-mails to all citizens of the Mushroom Kingdom after that T-pose zombie incident," Waluigi said. "The whole purpose of that little outbreak was to make people hate me and say no to my E-mail invites. With every person that rejected me, my powers grew...but then. You, Mario, were the only to accept my invite...until now".

"Wait. So you nearly zombified all my friends, put Y/N, Luigi and I through escape rooms, made me thought my brother was dead! All that...so I wouldn't like you!?" Mario shouted furiously.

"Exactly," Waluigi replied.

"You have some serious issues," Y/N grunted as he continuously fight against his prison.

Waluigi zoomed into Y/N's face. "Of course you'd think that, Y/N. Someone as gifted as you could never understand the path to gaining power. Your power was handed to you with butterflies and rainbows, you haven't worked for it at all! Not like I have!"

"How?" Y/N gasped. "How did you know about me!?"

"Let's just say that I'm not the only one who has found power through Darkness," Waluigi replied. "But now I have reached my final form. Thank you, Mario". Waluigi snapped his fingers and a purple portal of Darkness opened next to him. He stepped into it and turned around, facing the two one last time. "We will meet again". The portal closed and Waluigi disappeared.

Y/N felt the gravity prison around him dissolve and he fell to the ground. He got onto his hands and knees an dsgtared at the ground. Waluigi was fully usuing Darkness now. Who knows what that could do to the poeple here, to his friends. He looked up at where the portal was and squeezed his fist hard in anger. "This isn't over, Waluigi".